From Track & Field to Karate – UK sports tech specialist wins contracts with two more US governing bodies, bringing total roster to 55 worldwide
Sheffield sports tech specialist Sport:80 has announced its appointment by two US sporting governing bodies, bringing its total roster to 55 worldwide – an increase of 18 since the start of the Covid-pandemic as sports have pivoted to digital technology to retain contact with members.
The company, which develops cloud-based sport management software for governing bodies to manage their operations and deliver online services to members, has commenced work with both USA Track & Field and USA Karate.
USA Track & Field, of which approximately 130,000 Americans are members, has adopted the Sport:80 platform to manage members including state organisations, clubs and individuals (athletes, coaches and officials). Their platform centralises membership registration, qualifications, background screening, SafeSport (online safeguarding training), and a range of other modules and functions. Fifty-six USATF Associations oversee the sport and its more than 3,000 clubs at local level, with thousands of volunteers keeping track and field active at both local and national levels.
“The Sport:80 Platform is allowing us to make significant improvements to the way we manage a number of our services and how we engage with members.” explains Scott Galbreth, Director of Information Technology.
“By centralising our member services, we have been able to aggregate data and access a 360-view of our members. We are also able to create greater levels of engagement because we can offer them a self-service approach to managing their relationship with us. The platform is also scalable, allowing us to work with Sport:80 to introduce new features which continue to improve our digital offering. This is something that we have already take advantage of since we launched the system.”
Sport:80 is also currently onboarding USA Karate to deliver a platform that will enable the governing body to manage a variety of operations, including membership registration, management of belts and grades, qualifications, event registration, SafeSport, and background screening alongside a range of backend administration functions. Research has suggested an estimated 18 million Americans participate in karate or some other form of martial art during the course of a year with Karate one of the most popular martial arts in the country*. The governing body has moved to increase its digital presence anticipating a surge in interest in the sport with it featuring in the Olympics for the first time later this year.
“We offer the first tech platform built specifically for national governing bodies of sport, wherever in the world they may be,” explains CEO Gary Hargraves.
“By the time we get to the end of this year we will have onboarded a minimum of 23 national governing bodies since the start of 2020. This includes the likes of US Bobsled & Skeleton, US Speedskating, USA Curling, USA Judo, USA Surfing, and USA Taekwondo among others. Providing all sports are soon back doing what they do best, and people are allowed to compete and participate again, we will be in a really strong position to grow the business even further. We are continuously developing our digital ecosystem which includes our flagship platform, while also introducing new products to enable our clients to capitalize on the power and value of technology.”
The last, positive year for Sport:80 has seen the total number of governing bodies worldwide that it works with increasing to 55 and the company experiencing year-on-year growth for the 6th consecutive year.
